Film plans and explaination of aims

Film Plan

A blank screen. 3 Seconds later, the sound of a computer mouse clicks, digetic sound. With this, a name of one of the actors appears in a small, white font, to the lower left-hand side of the screen. 2-3 seconds. It then fades. 2-3 seconds later, another click, digetic, and another actor name appears on-screen for 2-3 seconds in the same font as before. It then fades .2-3 seconds later, another click, and another name (in the same font) and then it fades. 2-3 seconds later, the screen gradually fades in, revealing a computer monitor, which occupies the entire screen. On the screen is a webpage, displaying news about rising university tuition fees. After 10 seconds, the webpage then scrolls downwards, revealing more of the article, as if someone was using the mouse. The screen remains fixed for 5 seconds.

Camera then zooms out. It reveals a teenage boy/girl, age 16-17, who is sat down on a chair in front of this computer screen. We can see the back of their head. They are wearing large, visible headphones, connected an mp3 player of some sort. This process should take 5-6 seconds. Digetic sound is introduced at this point, the sound of music from his headphones. 2-3 seconds later, a hand appears from the right-hand side of the screen, and it forcefully slaps the back of the teenager’s head. Close-up shot of the teenager, from the table that the computer monitor is on. Is it pointing slightly upwards, revealing that the person who hit them was a teacher (in his mid sixties). Dialogue is introduced at this point. The teenager removes their headphones and the digetic music stops.

Teenager: (placing their hands on the back of his head to show that they are hurt) OW!

Teacher: (appearing cross) Oi! You’re meant to be doing you’re UCAS application!

Teenager: (turning to face him) What? Why?

Teacher: Because I told you to! The application deadline is soon, and you haven’t even told me your university choices yet!

Teenager: That’s cause I’m not goin!

Teacher: (appearing surprised, but still angry) What?!

Teenager: University. I’m not goin!

Teacher: Why not!

Teenager: I can’t afford it!

Teacher: That’s ridiculous! You have to go to University, because what else are going to do? Nothing,

(At this point, the camera changes to a medium shot of another teenager, also sat down in front of a computer monitor, who shifts their eyes so that they look to their left, for half a second, and then looks back to the computer monitor. 1-2 seconds, the camera shifts backs to the close-up shot of the first teenager, in the same angle as before.)

that’s what! Without education, you’ll be nothing! This college will have nothing to show for your generation if you all said that you ‘can’t afford’ to go to university, so there are no excuses! Get a move on! (He walks away to his right, so that he is off-screen)

Teenager: (placing his/her hands over their face. He/she sighs.) Fucks sake!

(He/she spins his/her wheelie chair around so that they are facing a table that was behind them. They then lower their face and slam it against the table. Camera changes to a long shot, with the teenager positioned slightly to the left of the screen. After 2-3 seconds, the other teenager who was seen at the other computer earlier appears on-screen, also in a wheelie chair, positions themself next to the first teenager. At this point, the camera slowly begins to zoom in, and does so for the rest of the scene.)

2^nd Teenager: Hey, calm down. Do you really not wanna go to uni?

Teenager: (raising their head from off of the table, lowering their hands as well) No. I said I can’t afford it.

2^nd Teenager: I heard. Well, you don’t have to listen to him. (Indicating the teacher, nudging thier head subtly to their right) Have you talked to your parents?

Teenager: They said they’d kick me out of the house if I don’t apply. But I don’t even wanna go to uni!

2^nd Teenager: (after a 2 second delay) How come?

Teenager: They just want me to be independent don’t they? Fuck’s sake! I don’t have to go to uni to be independent! I can just work in Asda or something. I can earn my own money. Is that not independent enough?

2^nd Teenager: And you wanna do that for the rest of your life?

Teenager: Better that than pay nine grand a year for uni, isn’t it? So I’m not in huge debt for the rest of my life! They’ll still kick me out though. I don’t have a choice really. They tell me to do UCAS there, they tell me to do UCAS here. (Slamming their fists against the table, the camera should now be an extreme close-up shot of Teenager) Fucks sake!

The screen fades to black.

Explanation of aims

When thinking about the other films that we had watched, we noticed that they were often set against a political context (more notably 'La Haine') which was able to drive the narrative. As the aim of this project is to show power, poverty and conflict, but limited to filming around the college grounds, we thought that we could use a political theme that was relevant to the education setting, and display elements of power, poverty and conflict through this. Fortunately and unfortunately, there happened to be a big news story of this nature at present - the rise in tuition fees proposed by the government. As this rise sadly looks more and more likely to happen, we believed that we could present power - the hard, cruel fist of parliament. With the rise in fees, many students in future generations will sadly feel that the cost of university is out of their reach, and will reject to the idea. We were able to use this idea to create a teenage character, who does not want to complete his UCAS application because he 'can't afford' university - with this, we aim to show poverty. Students, for financial reasons, are denied education.

From personal experience, we've noticed that (no names mentioned) many teachers urge student to apply to university, weather it is in their interests to or not, and regardless of if they know what they want to study or not. This gave us an opportunity to present conflict. Using this viewpoint, we created a verbal argument between the teenager, who insists that he cannot afford to go to university, and the teacher, who insists that he must apply, because otherwise the college cannot claim merit for his future achievement. While watching 'City of God' and 'A Prophet' we noticed that their is a sense of facing an ugly compromise (Steak being forced to shoot one of the runts in 'City of God' to be accepted in Lil' Ze's gang, and Malik being forced to kill Reyab by Cesaer, who claims that if he doesn't, he will be killed himself in 'A Prophet'). Using this as inspiration, we formed the idea that our teenage character could also be faced with a grim compromise - if he doesn't apply to university, his parents will kick him out of the home. He doesn't want to apply to university, but he doesn't have a choice - much like Malik in 'A Prophet'. He is faced with a grim compromise - whatever he chooses to do, there will be a price to pay.

Presentation Planning

PowerPoint slide. To include:

• Title question
• Posters from each of my focus films
• Picture of Meadows

Spoken text: To include a brief biography of Meadows, detailing his up-bringing and his introduction to film work. State my question and then state each of the films I will be looking at.

Spoken text or PowerPoint Slide. To include sub-questions:

• Does Meadow's use his own cultural knowledge and experiences to shape his films?
• How Does he use social and political contexts to drive the narrative in these films?
• How are these contexts show within the characters?

PowerPoint Slide. To include:

• Theatrical poster of 'This is England'
• Next to this, state release date, cast and crew, production company ect.

Spoken text: Provide a brief outline of the plot an characters. Include information on the social and political context of the 1980's and how they are explored in the film, using catalogue entries to help. Include how Meadow's created the film based on his own childhood experiences, as detailed in my catalogue entries.

Visual clip: Extract from 'This Is England' of Shaun being shaped to fit skinhead subculture, as prompted by Woody.

Visual clip: Extract from 'This is England' of Combo expressing nationalist viewpoints.

Spoken text: Summary of film and these clips. How they influence the characters and narrative of the film. Include press responses, using catalogue entries to help.

PowerPoint slide. To include:

• Theatrical poster of 'Somers Town'
• Next to this, state release date, cast and crew, production details ect.

Spoken text: Brief outline of the plot and characters of the film. Include notes the social and political context of the King's Cross/St. Pancras redevelopment, using catalogue entries to help. Explain how this was Meadow's first film to be shot outside of the Midlands and what the actors thought of the shooting process and how effective it was.

Visual clip: Mariusz at work on 'St.Pancras/King's Cross station as this implicates a key cultural theme having an effect on characters.

Visual clip: Argument in the flat between Marek and Mariusz, as this displays elements of kitchen sink drama.

Spoken text: Closing summary of clips and film in general. include Meadow's reflections, using catalogue entries to help.

PowerPoint slide. To include:

• Theatrical poster of 'Once Upon A Time in the Midlands'
• Next to this, state release date, cast and crew, production companies ect.

Spoken text: Brief outline of the plot and characters. Explain the controversies surrounding the social accuracy of the Midlands, using catalogue entries to help with this. Explain Meadow's thoughts on this, using his own experience of the Midlands, using catalogue entries to help.

Visual clip: Scene from 'Once Upon A Time in the Midlands' where Dek, Shirley, Carol and Charlie discuss the arrival of Jimmy, as it shows the close community formed between the array of different accents.

Visual clip: Scene from 'Once Upon A Time in the Midlands' where Dek is seen referring to his car 'baby' or Dek working in the garage, as this indicates the reference to the high number of motoring manufactures that are located in the Midlands.

Spoken text: Summary including press feedback and Meadow's comments, using catalogue entries to help.

PowerPoint slide. To include:

• Theatrical posters of all three films.
• A reflective comment on each of these films, using my catalouge entries to help me we with this.
  

Spoken text: Summary of presentation, explaining how I have answered my focus question and the sub-questions. Use a separate paragraph/section covering these questions for each film. End with a 'Thank you'-style sentence.

How social and political themes are explored in the films of Shane Meadows

In 'This is England' Meadows uses his of knowledge and childhood experiences of England in the 1980's, using radio and TV clips of the key events and highlighting youth sub-cultures of the decade as a driving force for the narrative. He even stated that some of the characters in the film have been created based on people he knew in the 80's.

'Somers Town' is a social study of the Somers Town area of London, and presents elements of a kitchen-sink drama by showing conflict within families. The re-development of King's Cross/St. Pancras station provides work for many who have come overseas, such as Marek's farther, and this is presented within the film. The London setting also presents a wide variety of nationalities - English, Polish and French. It also presents a different view on the youth of today - Tommo acts hard, which can be expected from someone of his age. What you wouldn't expect, however, is for him to be friendly with A polish child. But he is.

The social accuracy of 'Once Upon A Time in the Midlands' is questionable. This is because, in the East Midlands setting, Meadows has pitted together a Scot, a Welsh, a Cockney and Scouse, and presents a close community between these accents. How they came to form this, however, is debatable. However, Meadows defends this using his own knowledge of Nottingham and the Midlands, stating that a wide variety of people can be found here.

A comparison of the treatment of power, poverty and conflict in ‘A Prophet’ and ‘City of God’

The story of ‘City of God’ is told entirely from the perspective of Rocket, a young boy who dreams of becoming a photographer. His voice is the narrative that gives the audience an explanation as to who the people around him are and what is happening in society. ‘A Prophet’, however, isn’t told from anyone’s perspective and simply follows the progression of the character Malik as he starts a six-year prison sentence. He enters prison alone, not knowing anyone but is contracted by Ceaser, the Corsican kingpin who rules what happens in the prison. Ceaser tells Malik that he must kill Reyab, an Arabic prison inmate, or be killed himself by Ceaser’s forces. We see Malik develop from a prisoner forced to work with the Corsicans and regretfully kill Reyab so that he can be ‘protected’, to an independent criminal mastermind, committing crimes on his own terms. This form of development can also be found in ‘City of God’ within the character of Lil’ Ze, who we first see as an innocent young boy having his first taste of murder and eventually becoming the leader of the gang who control the streets and provokes fear in everyone around him. The key thing to note however, is that Malik didn’t want to kill Reyab - He had no other choice, it was either kill or be killed, whereas Lil’ Ze’ enjoyed his early killings in the brothel and had the option of weather he wanted to do it or not.

A big similarly between the two films is that both settings (a Brecourt prison in ‘A Prophet’, the slums of Rio De Janerio in ‘City of God’) have a powerful, fear-provoking force that hangs over them and keeps watch -Caesar and the Corsicans in ‘A Prophet’ who instantly trap Malik into doing something that he doesn’t want to do, and Lil’ Ze and his drug-running gang who take part in the gang warfare that fills the streets in ‘City of God’. Also, at the end of each film, we see both of these forces crumble and fall apart - in ‘City of God’ this occurs when Lil’ Ze is shot dead by the Runts, whereas in ‘A Prophet’ we see Caesar’s power gradually slip away throughout the film as Malik becomes more independent and less reliable on him, which causes Caesar much frustration - he is desperate to have power. His demise is truly signified during a scene where he attempts to walk over the Malik, but is knocked to the ground by the Muslims who Malik has independently allied with. Caesar’s fearful reign ends, but the Muslim’s begins, which creates a cycle of terror. Something similar occurs in ‘City of God’ - even though Lil’ Ze is now dead, it is The Runts who take over the streets and again we are imposed with a question - will the terror ever end?

There are also some differences in the narrative in both films. In ‘A Prophet’ the story focuses entirely on Malik’s time in prison, giving little information on any other characters and their backgrounds. ‘City of God’ is very contrasting because even though the narrative is told entirely through Rocket’s eyes, throughout the film he pauses the story in order to tell another small story of other characters, such as Lil’ Ze and Knockout Ned, sharing how their story and background is relevant to the leading story. The story moves through the decades of the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s and constantly reversers time to tell another story, such as when Lil’ Ze discovers his love of killing, whereas ‘A Prophet’ pushes through Malik’s time spent in prison, time is never shifted backwards.

The films share a very noticeable theme - corruption. The characters are surrounded by ugly compromises; they have to do things that they don’t want to do in order to live. In ‘A Prophet’ Malik is faced with an awful decision as soon as he enters prison - Cesar tells him that if he wants to be protected, he must kill an Arabic prisoner named Reyab, or be killed himself by the Corsicans. There is a similar scene in ‘City of God’ where Lil’ Ze forces Steak to shoot one of the two Runts that they have captured in order to join their ranks. It appears that both Malik and Steak don’t really have much of a choice - they have to do something that they’ll regret for the rest of their life in order to get what they want. For Malik, this is survival, but for Steak, it is to be considered part of the Gang by Lil’ Ze. Both films also display a huge social divide - in the prison of ‘A Prophet’ the tension between the Muslims, Corsicans and Arabics is clear because the Muslims talk to no one but themselves while the Corsicans think of Malik as nothing other than a ‘dirty Arab’, which is also a sign of racial tension. In ‘City of God’, however, the social divide is indicated by the gang warfare that patrols the streets, and Lil’ Ze wants all other gangs wiped out so that he can be the best. Lil’ Ze wants nothing but power. The same applies for Caesar in ‘A Prophet’, who becomes infuriated when he sees his power slipping away in front of him. This is most evident when he attacks Malik, forcing a spoon into his eye because he is angry that Malik no longer fears him.

There is another similar narrative feature - the events in both of the films are set over a progressive timeline. In ‘A Prophet’ this is the six years that Malik spends in prison, whereas in ‘City of God’ the story is spread across three decades. Also, throughout both films, titles appear on screen to identify characters and objectives - in ‘City of God’ these are accompanied with a freeze frame and Rocket’s voice-over giving a brief explanation of who they are/what is happening, whereas in ‘A Prophet’ the narrative is not interrupted at these points.

Comments on 'A Prophet'

This was a film that I enjoyed very much. I found it interesting how the development of Marik is presented throughout his time in prison. He entered as a mindless, police-beating violent man, but he learns a lot of discipline during his sentence, taking literature and science classes, which help him to slow down and take more consideration for his surroundings. He takes these classes as he states that he cannot read - perhaps this tells us something about his background and up-bringing - was he uneducated? could his family not finance his education?

Prison is presented as a dangerous place and Cesar, the leading mobster, is aware of how frightening it can be for newbies such as Marik. He offers him protecting, but this come at a price - Marik must kill Reyab, an Arabic prisoner, or be killed by Cesar's cronies. Straight away Marik is stuck between a rock and and hard place - he can save himself, but it comes as a very ugly compromise. In terms of conflict, a divide is clearly created in the prison - Arabics are refereed to as 'dirt Arabs' and the Muslims talk to no one but themselves. Racial trust is also an issue - when Marik is running an errand, he knock on a house, and the people inside argue about weather they should let him enter, stating 'He's an Arab - do we let him in?'.

Cesar, who takes Marik under his wing, is desperate to maintain his power over the people in the prison. He changes from being the man who Marik feared and worked for, possibly just to stay alive, to the man hating the fact that he has nothing.